NEW DELHI, Feb 9 (1992) – Indian political leaders converged here Sunday for an emergency meeting on a planned mass march into disputed Kashmir state Tuesday as Defence Minister Sharad Pawar said Delhi and Islamabad were in constant touch in an effort to defuse the crisis.
In Kashmir, India’s only Moslem-majority state, however, Moslem militants fighting for secession from India called for a total strike, massive demonstrations and welcoming parties to greet the marchers February 11.
The meeting Monday with the country’s political party heads was called by Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao to discuss Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) plans to push ahead with the march across the line of control from Pakistan-administered Kashmir by thousands of volunteers.
The Rao government has pledged to stop the marchers entering India by force if need be, and has called on the members of the U.N. security council to caution Pakistan.
The JKLF has said it will go ahead with the march in a massive show of support for the Kashmiri secessionists, despite Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s vow that it will be stopped at all costs to prevent loss of life.
Underground JKLF leader Javed Ahmed Mir Sunday called in a statement released in the state summer capital of Srinagar, urban hub of the militant campaign, for activists to “march up to the ceasefire line and greet the marchers.”
Mir criticised the Pakistani decision to stop the march and said “anyone doing so will be treated by Kashmiri freedom fighters as their enemy and will be held responsible for for thwarting our freedom struggle.”
National television meanwhile quoted Indian military commanders in Kashmir as saying a constant vigil had been mounted over the line of control dividing the disputed state, the cause of two wars between India and Paksitan.
